Every Journey has a beginning, so here is mine, summarized. It has not been easy at all following this career. I wont even begin to sugar coat it. It will sometimes feel like it takes a lot more than dedication, pride, hunger, focus, to stick with it. I went into this field thinking "this will be easy", but in turn I was wrong. Finding the "connections" or "hookups" is probably one of the hardest things when first starting out since it IS about who you know. I use to spend most of my time messaging people, anyone that had a name in the Industry. I use to research them and send messages via Myspace and email and MOST of the time i got no response back. It got very discouraging that my overnight stardom wasn't as close as i thought it would be. I then started working, or collaborating, with anyone and everyone that I could. I would connect with artists on Myspace and ask to do some production work for them. It then turned into favors being traded for services. For example, I would "Do a Beat" for them and in return they would link me up with so and so's email.
With some time of doing this, I made the right connections with the right people and ended up doing background music for MTV's Three 6 Mafia show, "Adventures In Hollyhood". From that point, I started meeting and networking with people left and right. This show was able to get me credits I needed to start building my music Resume. The bigger the work you've got under your belt, the better jobs you start getting and the MORE people, the somebody's in the industry, will start listening to you and replying back to you. It's crazy that with a little credit, I was finally getting listened to. At this point, I was able to start setting up conference calls with some HUGE connections, and at the time I really didn't know HOW to present myself and to show what I really wanted to accomplish in this career. So in other words, I blew A LOT of possibilities all because I didn't know HOW to present myself. So First and Foremost, you HAVE to have a plan..and MOST IMPORTANT, you have to believe in YOURSELF and YOUR work. If your music will speak for you regardless of what you say. Nothing comes overnight.. You have to climb and work your way to the top so remember this ALWAYS and know that everything takes TIME so work with many different areas. Eventually you will start getting placements here and there. Once you have some work under your belt, get together a music resume to be able to SHOW your accomplishments and your SKILLS... This will help gather an idea of what you are doing and what you want to accomplish before you start knocking down doors. Although I eventually gained the attention that I was seeking, the success of it all DOES NOT come easy. With the RIGHT people now at your disposal, the $$ just doesn't start pouring in as well as having endless opportunities. You have to work even HARDER to get the placements you've been working for. In this line of work, you get a thousands NO's before you get that YES, BUT with that ONE YES, that may be all that you will need. The best thing is is that your doing what you love, being able to create with no limits or no right or wrong way of going about it. But, Even with this in mind, it's STILL not that easy. I've submitted to MANY things in my quest, and a lot of them didn't make the cut. It's kind of like "May the best song win", or sometimes it's just what fits the scene, artist, etc. Maybe your song just didn't sync with the film right, or the emotion of your song isn't what they needed to match the emotion shown. It doesnt mean your work isn't good enough, it just may have not been what they needed, so REMEMBER THAT. What happens is that the artist, management, the label, A&R's,editors, Music supervisors, etc, are looking for music and turn to producers, songwriters, composers, arrangers and so on, to get a hold of that music. A lot of them prefer to have a full song done, lyrics AND music, and if your just a producer that just does music, then your chances are narrow on getting this placement on the album, TV show, movie, etc. Same thing goes for the songwriter who just has lyrics. It's almost like the chances are far better for you if you have the FULL song ready to go, leaving the artist, assuming they will choose your song, to just rerecord the song in their own voice. You can look at it as if the artist, and or team/label, were to walk into a shop and pick out what they want from the products available. So in a nut shell, this whole process is known as the "Demo-ing" stages. Hoping to get the "Cut", or "placement". This is the process where you will get more NO's or passes on your music, than YES's. It takes a lot within yourself to not take things to a personal level if your work is not chosen, and to come to an understanding that that's the business. You have to make yourself see that just because you didn't get the placement, that your not cut out for this type of work or that you don't have what it takes. I just thought that I would share this info since this is what turns many talented people away from this area of music. With all of this said... I STILL LOVE IT! I love the challenge, the opportunities! It can Be limitless and the BEST thing is, Once you DO get a placements or even A placement, you are compensated for your work, known as ROYALTIES. You are paid for every time the song is played on whatever it got placed with, TV, Radio, film, etc. FOREVER!!!! As much as it PLAYS or AIRS you get paid for it, however many copies are sold, etc. These are just SOME of the compensation options. Full details are usually discussed and negotiated on. SO THAT is one of the BEST things of creating music and getting it PLACED somewhere commercially. The royalties are collected for you by affiliates such as ASCAP, BMI, etc. You can choose which you want to work with. I personnaly chose ASCAP and have placed a Pic of what comes in the mail, or encourages YOU to keep going
The affiliation you choose gathers the info on how many times your work has been played, performed, sold, etc, and sends out a check with a detailed tracking of times and places it was used. Its more complicated than just getting a check. You still have to make sure it all gets tracked correctly, but you can research the collecting and tracking part of it if interested for full details on how that works. I would encourage ANYONE that is interested in this career to FOLLOW it!! Once I started to follow these guidlines, I noticed the GOOD things.. I got my first radio single, more of my work on TV/Film.
One of most exciting placements was on Stefani Montiel's album DIVINA (an official remix) that was a FINAL NOMINEE for the 2009 GRAMMY AWARDS, which in turn grabbed me a Final Nominee Grammy Certificate.. I just wanted to be "real" with this and show the REALNESS of it and what you have to prepare for mentally and physically. If you are prepared going into it, then you will know what to expect and how to keep your FOCUS non stop!! Stay ahead and HUMBLE... Let your Music speak for YOU and Do NOT date your material.. Don't say i made this last year, last week etc.. Whats OLD to you may be NEW to someone else!! That is KEY info.. and ABOVE ALL.... ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!!
